No strain in ties with Cong: Kanimozhi

Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK chief M Karunanidhi’s daughter and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi on Thursday tried to downplay the CBI raids on people close to her and her mother Rajathi in connection with the 2G spectrum scam.

Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK chief M Karunanidhi’s daughter and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi on Thursday tried to downplay the CBI raids on people close to her and her mother Rajathi in connection with the 2G spectrum scam.

Kanimozhi told mediapersons here that the raids had not strained relations between alliance partners DMK and Congress.

She said Wednesday’s raids were part of the due process of law and that the DMK “would come out clean” after the investigations are completed.

But the mood at the DMK headquarters in Chennai was sombre with party leaders and cadres looked worried, sullen and upset. They are sticking to the line that they have nothing against the Congress and that the raids were part of the investigations that the Supreme Court has directed. No one except Kanimozhi was willing to say any more that this.

Kanimozhi asked the media not to read too much into the raids that covered Tamil Maiyam, the NGO she is associated with.

“We cannot fight with processes when we are trying to prove we are clean,” she said, claiming she was not disturbed as there was nothing to hide.

“I am open to it (raids) and the DMK is open to it,” she said. Father Jegath Gaspar Raj, managing trustee of Tamil Maiyam, told mediapersons that neither he nor the NGO was in any way connected to the 2G spectrum issue or the funds associated with alleged scam. The CBI had in its search warrant said it wanted to see whether the alleged scam funds had found their way into the NGO.

Father Raj dismissed as “preposterous and malicious” insinuations made by Tughlaq editor Cho Ramaswamy and Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy that some of the scam funds had been routed to the LTTE through Tamil Maiyam. He said he would consult legal opinion on filing defamation cases against them.

Father Raj said he had never spoken to Niira Radia, who is alleged to have pushed for the DMK’s A Raja being made telecom minister in the UPA’s second innings in power.